I bought a book, a pen, a pencil, and a pencil box.

[xiaoen]

I bought a book, a pen, a pencil, and a pencil box.

Hi,
I know that it's better to use the red comma before "and" but what happens if I omit it? Is the sentence OK even if I remove just the red comma?

 

[Skrej]

This is known as the serial comma, or Oxford comma. I wouldn't necessarily say that it's better to use it in your sentence - in fact I wouldn't use one in your sentence at all.

Use of the Oxford comma is commonly debated - you'll see proponents for and against it. It's somewhat a matter of style and preference.

My thought is that you only need bother using it if there's potential confusion. There's no confusion in your sentence - you're clearly referring to four separate, easily identifiable items.

 

[Raymott]

On the other hand, if you always use this comma, you won't have to worry about whether it's needed. I can't think of an example in which it is wrong.

 

[GoesStation]

Newspaper editors commonly delete Oxford commas in the interest of saving space. One of them badly mangled a sentence I wrote, making it read as if Cambridge were in Oxford.